"I can not believe that he convinced us to go to this thing," Charlie Dalton groaned to the other six boys in the bathroom, who like him, were all intently gazing in the mirrors meticulously adjusting the knots on their neckties or running combs through their sleek hair like there was no tomorrow.

"Well, not all of us," Neil Perry reminded him; shooting a significant glance towards Cameron who was furiously trying to smooth the bristly curls that made up his thick red crew cut.

Cameron turned to Neil and huffed, "I'm just saying it's ridicules that Knox would drag us all along to break about fifty school rules just so he can see his precious girlfriend."

"Almost-girlfriend," Steven Meeks, always the stickler for accuracy, corrected Cameron.

"Exactly! He's being an idiot," Cameron fumed.

"No one said you had to come," Charlie pointed out.

Cameron gave Charlie an indignant look; appalled that Charlie would even suggest such a thing.

"Of course I have to come," he said with annoying superiority. "I have to be there to make sure none of you get into mischief."

"Why do you think we're bringing along Meeks?" Charlie asked causing the short bespectacled boy to shoot his cocky friend a scathing look and emit a sarcastic, "Ha. Ha."

"And if Meeks gets drunk we'll just have Neil watch over us…that is if he and Todd aren't locked in the closet somewhere," Charlie said with a smirk.

Neil gave his friend a disapproving scowl while Todd, in his usual shy, awkward manner simply blushed a deep red, remaining silent.

Cameron ignored all the comments being shot from Charlie and looked at Meeks quizzically, "Why are you coming Meeks? I mean, I have to but you don't."

Meeks refrained rolling his eyes at Cameron's so-called voluntary sacrifice and instead shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I'll try anything once."

Charlie grinned wickedly, "Except—

"Don't even say it," Meeks cut him off.

Charlie obeyed, though was still smirking significantly as he turned back to the mirror to fix his short light brown crew cut.

Just then, a boy with a red-blonde crew cut and an excited, almost maniac, air to him burst into the crowded bathroom. His face fell when he saw the boys in front of the mirror.

"You're still getting ready?" he asked frowning.

Charlie turned and fluttered his eyelashes, "We can't be all as naturally pretty as you Knoxious."

"Faces like this take work you know," Pitt's added, earning a nod of approval from Charlie. Pitt's wasn't one to crack witty comments, mainly because he never spoke, but when he did the guy had some good stuff up his sleeve.

The rest of the boys snickered at the comments save for Todd who only smiled and Knox, whose frown only grew.

"C'mon guys we have to go the party—"

"—doesn't start for another half-hour," Neil finished, checking his wristwatch. "Meaning we have plenty of time—I'm not showing up for some party where I know no one just to awkwardly stand around and answer questions on how I manage being away from girls for a whole school year."

"Which for the record is beat off. A lot." Charlie said.

"But we still have to sneak out and get there and that could take forever," Knox moaned. "I dunno how long I can take not seeing her."

Knox leaned against the sink letting out a longing groan in agony and frustration causing the rest to exchange withering glances. In light of this recent development, maybe this party wasn't such a bad idea. At best, the might result in shutting Knox up; at worst they'd all get their coat-and-tie-prep-school-asses beaten. Hoping it was the prior, the boys took one last check in the mirror and shuffled out the door, all wondering what the night's events might bring.